Knits

Hmm, no I’m not going to Vienna, nor have I been recently (ever), and I have nothing to say about the sausages…

Anyway…

I’ve spent the last two days at home, occasionally checking my work email and replying or doing things as needed. I’ve been laid up with some serious migraines. I spent the majority of yesterday in bed with earplugs and a pillow on my face — one of those buckwheat filled ones ’cause I like the weight of it on my face (note, however, that I do not like the weight of my cat on my back when I am in a horizontal position). The only reason I got out of the bed was due to hunger and the fact that my body was beginning to ache. I tried to do some knitting, but ending up ripping said knitting out no less than three times because it was too big, too wonky, and then it turned out the pattern really wasn’t showing up like I expected.

Which leads me to slip stitch patterns like the Eye of Partridge (EoP just because I can) heel that can look oh so nice on socks. Essentially that is what the Aquaphobia sock is w/ a little cable up either side. I thought my Claudia Handpainted would look fantastic, but the pattern just wasn’t showing up. The two times I have done an EoP heel, they’ve looked, well not so great as in I didn’t think the patterning popped like I’d seen it on so many others. Is there something to my technique? I’m slipping a stitch and knitting it the next round, how hard can this be? I’m slipping purlwise, maybe I should slip knitwise, but I don’t want twisted stitches. Is it just me?

In other news, I’m still homeless for my move in roughly five weeks (sweet Jesus that’s approaching fast). Other things are falling into place although I’ve been met with a bit of a surprise regarding my work permit. Nothing big, just thought it was something I could put off until the summer. I’ve also had more trips to the post office in the last week than I’d generally like to make. That said, for the most part it was painless which was nice for once. My doorstep has also been busy with the receiving of great things (including the above picture of the Zen Garden Sock Club instalment 2 — colour Aubergine):

 
Both from Natural Dye Studio: BFL DK sock yarn in Ruby Fire — Ariel lace weigh silk flamme in Sweetness

I know, it’s a lot of pink goin’ on for someone who doesn’t like pink really (I have a pink t-shirt). The Zen Garden is a pretty dusty coloured pinky/purple and I quite like it. The other two lots of yarn aren’t really for me so it’s fine, right? The BFL sock yarn I had a really hard time photographing — it’s pretty much a wholly unrepresentative picture hahaha.

However, the Thin Mints? ALL FOR ME. I have already eaten a sleeve of them. I am a pig.

Ava is a goddess. Not only did she sent me TWO boxes of Thin Mints at my request, she’s a knitter so she had to include something knitterly. You might recall that last year she gave me a sock book she was going to toss and two beautiful skeins of yarn (in exchange I sent her a bunch of chocolate bars and uh, lip gloss). Well this time she sent me a supercute cardigan pattern - the Rockstar Jacket from Alchemy Yarns. So cute! Now I’ll have to find yarn for that. Hmmm…

It’s time for another headache tablet and a lie down. Fun times.

PS There was an earthquake in the north of England early this morning. I didn’t feel it. I’m slightly sad about this, but then the news stories do provide a lot of really amusing quotes from English people who are always being very decent and stumbling out of their homes in their dressing gowns.

I don’t have a lot to show or say right now despite many evenings of knitting.

First I think I am going to blatantly rip off Two Black Sheep and use song titles for post titles because I really hate trying to think up post titles. I am also going to blatantly rip off Sknitty (and many others) by using the title FO: [project name here] when I have finished objects to post. This will all start with the next post.

I do have one finished object… the Lake Park hat which I mentioned back at the end of September. Knowing I was going to run out of yarn, I set it aside until I decided what to do with it. Turns out a very kind person in the US had quite a bit of leftovers in the same dye lot and sent them to me for nothing but good karma. Now I have a little over one ball to use on something else! The hat came out a bit snug, but it’s nice and warm. You can’t see the “leaves” as well as I’d hope, but oh well…

Next, I’ve made some progress on my Stepped Fret socks - I’ve turned the heel and am decreasing the gusset. I also started a pair of socks using some yarn I was trying to destash - Regia Crazy Color 6-ply. I had originally bought it for some gloves/mittens, but then decided I couldn’t be bothered hence the destash. I decided to actually knit some socks with this because I thought the heavier weight might mean a finished object faster. I’m using a baby chevron pattern and having some technical problems so it’s not progressed as fast as I would’ve liked.

I don’t know if you can see it in this picture (click to make supersize), but the knitted column that falls between the two yarn overs (middle of the sock), is coming out in a zigzag. It’s not as apparent when the sock is stretched on the foot which is good (because I generally don’t care what a sock looks like off the foot), but I’m wondering why this is happening as I can’t think of it really happening before. Is it the yarn? Is it something with my technique? I’ve tried a number of things to correct it —
twisting the stich when I knit it,
if I knit it normally then on the following round, I twist that stitch
twisting the yarn overs

and nothing seems to actually help. It seems the best to just knit as normal on all rounds.

There are mirrored decreases too — a k2tog followed by a ssk. The ssk was looking very wonky too so I’ve cleaned it up immensely by doing my usual slip 1 knitwise, put it back on the left needle and then k2tog through the back loop; on the following round I then knit the decreased stitch through the backloop.

These socks have lots of little experiments in technique in them.

The other thing I tried was slightly different short row techniques for the heel turn. Since I knit the backwards heel flap because of my high instep, I just use the short row to get the heel cup. I used the double wraps as chronicled by misocrafty and Cosmicpluto — the difference being misocrafty passes the wrapped stitches over the knitted stitch while Cosmicpluto actually knits the wraps. [Click for big.]

Again, it may be hard to tell from the picture, but I certainly found a difference in the techniques in my knitting — especially when picking up the stitches on the knit side. On the left, the baby chevron sock, the knit side pick ups and subsequent psso came out loose every single time (I re-knit this turn 3x) with very visible holes — the exact thing this technique was to help remove! On the right, the stepped fret sock, the wraps on both sides are much tighter. I did find it difficult with both techniques to actually pick up and put the last set of wraps on the needle.

Anyway, I’ve re-knit the baby chevron heel cup again and it’s much better.

I’m away again this week for work and house hunting! Fingers crossed I find something so I don’t have to make another trip north. It will be another item to tick off the list and make me feel less crazy. As for Trigger, I spoke to soon last weekend. She was still sick through most of this week, but is now on some medication and will hopefully be back to normal very soon. I think the long course of antibiotics may have wrecked havoc on her intestinal fauna and she needed some probiotics to get things rebalanced. Fingers crossed there too.

The first instalment of the Socktopus sock club arrived back in December. I really liked the purple, but wasn’t really keen on the yellow/gold and not so much the pattern. However, seeing that the package was designed to be knit with a specific pattern hence each skein of yarn was enough for ONE sock, I knew I’d have to do something similar or find another use. I was taken with the idea of colourwork that doesn’t actually involve carrying two (or more) colours at once and lo if there aren’t a couple of mosaic stitch patterns in the Sensational knitted socks books. Oh and it turns out I really love the way that the yellow/gold knits up; it’s stunning.

The pattern is the Stepped Fret and doesn’t appear to be very popular based on both a Google and Ravelry search, but I quite like it and will do the other sock in reverse (although I’m still not sure if that will appear any different other than the heel and toe). It is very slow going for me since every other round is purled to give it texture so it will be a “at home” project. That means I need to start something else this weekend to take with me on train travels next week as well as a knit night.

I tried to get one last thing finished up for January, but it didn’t happen since I got absorbed in some online reading and conversations the last couple of nights and I’m okay with that; it should be done tonight. =)

Trigger has been sick off and on all week and I think it’s due to a sudden allergy to her usual food. She’s on wet cat food now and is way happier (health-wise) so that’s good. She’d been rather lethargic and whatnot just like we are when we’re feeling bad. Unfortunately I find the smell of wet cat food to be foul (it was previously only a very occasional treat) and also bloody expensive! I’m hoping another type of dry food I’ll begin introducing in a couple days will work for her.

Amazingly I am catching up on blog posts — at least the knitting ones (obviously the important ones).

I slept A LOT this weekend. Normally I can get by with 6-7 hours of sleep so it was a bit surprising to find myself not only sleep relatively solidly for TWELVE hours each night, but having to actually force myself out of bed in the morning and actually having a nap on Saturday (I would’ve had one Sunday had I not got out of bed at 11am…).

I wish I was better at gauging how much yarn I need to do the long tail cast-on. Rarely do I do pull just enough out. More often than not I have quite an excessive amount and when you know your yarn needs and the reality of your ball of yarn are fighting against you, it’s nice to get this right. Does anyone have a relatively foolproof way of pulling out just enough yarn? I ask because the Victorian cabled wristlets are nearly complete. I am going to have to tink back the last round on second one and just bind off. Not a huge loss and not dire to the overall effect since that bit is going to be hidden up my sleeve anyway, but annoying since looking at the ends from the cast on and where I had to join the yarn look like they would’ve been enough had I managed my yarn better. They’re a quick knit, but I don’t really feel like re-knitting them for what amounts to a minor flaw.

Now, holiday knitting. Well the Clapotis was my Christmas gift to my sister. I think I’m going to make another pair of the wristlets for a friend and three dishcloths for another friend. That’s really it in terms of holiday knitting for me. I’d knit something for my mom, but she apparently has been installed with a portion of the sun in her because she is rarely in need of anything more than a sweatshirt and even then she overheats. I think the coldest I’ve seen her was in Chicago when it was windy and Edinburgh, also known for its frosty breezes — she survived with a light-wool coat, scarf, gloves, and hat. Half the time she couldn’t deal with the hat ’cause it made her too hot so handknits are pretty much a no-go for her.

Anyway… how ’bout some stash enhancement?

 
Claudia Handpainted in Eat your veggies — Mountain Colors bearfoot in Yellow stone — Yarn Chef minestrone in Autumn stroll — Bouton d’Or Ksar in crepuscule (also in veloute, but the picture didn’t come out)
 

 
Noro Kureyon in 183 — Noro Kureyon in 211 — Tahki cotton classic in 3725 — Tahki cotton classic in 3832

The top row is all for socks. The Noro is for a scarf and the Tahki is to see how I like the feel of mercerised cotton so I can determine if I ever want to make the Miter Square Blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting, and if so, in this yarn or similar. I also got some dishcloth cotton, but that’s dead boring to show. I’m really attracted to warm colours lately (see the Mountain Colors and Yarn Chef) and semi-solid blues, but I’ve yet to find any in the latter category that I really want. Also, I really don’t need anymore — I’m seriously trying to destash and be strict about it; it’s going okay.

Oooh the day is catching up with me. I can feel my eyes wanting to shut so I best get my arse off the couch and into the kitchen.

I was making fast progress on the Anastasia sock. And then it stopped. I realised I’d lost a stitch and tinked back only to realise that it was pretty far back that I lost it (forgot a yarn over) so just got on with it and snuck in the stitch. Oh and the extra stitches did make a deep enough heel, but I think it’s a bit tight really and would require more stitches. I’ll detail this when I finish the socks up. These are hopefully going to be very tall socks as I am planning on knitting them until I run out of yarn because I really hate those little bits and I like me some tall socks.

And I’ll need tall socks because I think this time autumn is seriously upon us. I heard the neighbours turn on their heat last night (their boiler makes a terrible knocking noise — I hope they get it fixed ’cause I don’t know how they can put up with the noise) and last night cycling home I was seriously wishing I had another layer on as I was freezing.

Part of my lack of knitting the last couple of days is because I am feeling exhausted still. I am also trying to get myself into a better place mentally so have been taking some time to reflect on a number of recent events, thoughts, and feelings and put them down on paper (or electronically) because it certainly helps to purge the mind of overwhelming thoughts and feelings. There’s just too much on my plate right now and I need to focus on bits and pieces in order to start making any progress.

Tonight I think I will focus on some knitting and just try to relax. I’ve been trying to plan a lot of meetings and other work obligations in September and have realised that I only have about 4 days that aren’t taken up with other work-related obligations (either meetings/conferences or time to actually do serious amounts of work to meet deadlines) - for some reason that totally frightens me as I’m used to actually not having a lot of obligations and being able to be very flexible. Perhaps this is actually good as it forces me to say “no” which I need to work on.

I haven’t used my new camera any more. The weather and my mood have been too shit. Steep learning curve in Paris.

And some handy information for me should the day come that I actually decide to make a top - they always seem to stop just above my boobs.

• Bust-Darts: A Comprehensive Tit-torial — it covers what a Bust Dart is, horizontal and vertical darts, and which to use when. Awesome.
• How to Create a Bust-Dart: Part 2 — actually puts the technique to work. Double awesome.

First, thank you all for all the kind comments. I’m sorry I didn’t respond to each of you individually, but I just couldn’t. Everytime I read a comment I’d break down in tears.

I’m getting better. Monday and Tuesday I bawled my eyes out until they stung; and bawled some more. I didn’t even make it to work. I pretty much didn’t sleep on Sunday night / Monday-day even with a heavy sleeping pill — it only gave me about 90 minutes of “peace”. I was so emotionally exhausted that I did sleep nearly 12-hours Monday night (I also had a sleeping pill to help me get there). I also didn’t really eat until Thursday. I tried. From Sunday dinner until Wednesday night I had all of a half piece of toast, two kid-sized pots of yog(h)urt, and two small bowls of cereal. Thursday was the first day I’d eaten actual meals.

 
This terracotta bowl that the previous owner left was one of Dakota’s favourite places to sleep. It was out on the deck and would warm up. He fit inside it really well and would sometimes spin himself around it it to scratch his back. I didn’t bring it with me to the UK as it was too heavy and probably would’ve broken. My mom and sister now have it as they took care of Dakota and Trigger until I could get them here, and my sister’s cat, Ha Ma, now sleeps in it even if he is far too big for it.

I wrote a big list of all the charming things about my man, Dakota, that I will miss. Some of them were definitely annoying, but also “him” and thus charming (e.g. his penchant for using the litter box and running out of it at such high speed that a trail of kitty litter was always left in his wake which meant having to vacuum 2-3 times per week). It helped me smile and get past the horribleness of having to watch him die. I do keep reliving that moment, but it was so unreal that it’s getting easier to detach myself from it.

My other cat, Trigger, is slightly confused. I don’t know if she’ll become more confused when she realises that he’s not off having a holiday. She’s changed some of her habits — especially her bedtime habit of getting in the sink while I brush my teeth because at the same time Dakota would come charging into the bathroom and leap over the side of the tub, through the shower curtain and then attack the shower curtain; she often looked down her nose at him. I feel bad that she’s alone at home since she’s had a companion for the last eight years. I’m not going to rush out and get another cat right now — not until I’m ready.

I had Dakota cremated and brought him home Wednesday. It is very weird to have him there in this tiny wooden box. I let Trigger have a sniff and she rubbed her face all over it. I need to get a little plaque made for the box although I may get a different urn as I wanted something unique for him. I understand that a plain item can be good to help you remember the true meaning of that item, but I want something beautiful and special just like he was.

I have a few more thoughts on owning a pet and the value I find in it even when things like this, inevitably, happen, but I will save those for another post.

I had started knitting a sock on Sunday, but it wasn’t working out. It was to be the Jigsaw sock, but the chart either doesn’t convert well to toe up or it didn’t appear to because of the yarn choice (Knit Picks Memories¹ - Pansy). I then tried something else (can’t think right now what it was) and decided that didn’t work either. So now I am knitting Anastasia. It is definitely a quick pattern (I had to stop myself before I made a clown sized foot), but thanks to the current issue of Yarnival, I discovered a post about knitting toe up socks and how short row heels don’t really work for those of us with high insteps. Maia has written up a sort of recipe/tutorial on doing a gusset/flap toe up which is far more accommodating for those with a high instep. Since these socks are for me, I am going to knit one with the short row across more stitches which, apparently, creates a deeper heel, and the other with the gusset/flap as suggested in that post and see how I find each fit.

I also got a new camera. Because of the week I had I wasn’t as excited as I normally would be. I’ll be practicing using it this weekend as much as I can as in just over a week I’ll be off to Paris for a few days. The sock picture was taken with the new camera.

¹ I guess they’re discontinuing this yarn? I bought 4 colours and this has really been the only time that I wish I had a colour card first as I find the colours to be hideously bright really. As The Boy said when he saw it “That looks like School Wool. You know, the stuff they use in schools that’s cheap and bright to teach kids crafts.”

So for some reason I desperately want to be able to knit two socks at once. So once again I cast on for two at once on magic loop. Actually I was going to try two circulars, but managed to grab the wrong needles in round two and ended up with magic loop. The one needle alone is long enough, but previously when I tried this method I found it way too fussy so I moved to DPNs. Let it be said that I stuck with it all the way through the heels before making the switch. That meant one sock at a time and that’s when I made the sock that I couldn’t get over my skinny ankles.

Maybe there’s something wrong with my method, but I find that when I go to push the stitches onto the top needle and pull the bottom one out, it actually takes some effort to get those last few stitches over the cable/needle join. I am using Addi Turbos so it’s not like there’s a massive, lumpy join like there is on some circulars. I’m guessing this tightness occurs because those last two stitches are on the cable as I start working the top and get pulled snug against the cable since I pull rather tightly so not to have a ladder. I tried being very conscious of this and it still didn’t help. I gave up quickly this time and switched to my trusty DPNs. So I’m with the Yarn Harlot here - DPNs are quicker. Heh - it’s probably just practice, but who has the patience for that?! I want more knit socks now, damnit. Okay in like a fortnight… maybe.

 
My bargain table cloth. Hand embroidered linen (?) for £2 ($4). The pink detail above is on two corners and the periwinkle on the other two.
 

Nothing to show for it as I’m still increasing on the toe - maybe there will be a little progress later and I can edit this. Oh, I also decided against two at once because as I started knitting I realised that the balls are inside out to each other and while it probably wouldn’t bother (for years I was known to not wear matching socks — if they were matching it was completely by accident), it was sort of bothering me only because I didn’t think to look to see if they were wound the same.

Last night’s knitting was mostly a bust as I was doing the raglan increases on my Cathode, but totally messed up because I was doing the same increase I was using on my socks so all the increases were off. Argh. I knew I’d always see the jump in stitches so I ripped those out except that got in a muddle so I think I’ll rip all the way back to where I joined in the round and start again. I did finish up a dishcloth I had started the week before as a “here’s how you knit” project with two girls who I’ve re-taught to knit. I just wanted it done so I could put away the left over bits and the needles.

And and someone else knit some Flutter-bys for Sockapalooza 4! Seriously it is so flattering that someone would knit up a pattern that I wrote and I feel totally humbled by it. I will happily host a Flutter-by gallery for those who do knit them and want to submit a photo.

 
Some very minor stash enhancement. Hey, I couldn’t order just needles (and they ended up being the wrong one’s anyway - argh). Regia 6ply Crazy Color in Jungle. It is hideous looking in the ball but looks nice knitted up. Gloves or mittens methinks.

I have a voodoo ability when it comes to making it rain. Seriously. I notice that it is bright and sunny and warm so I put washing in and days later, it finishes (honestly, can someone please explain to me why washing machines in this country are half the capacity yet take twice as long to do a load of wash?). I grin and wander outside with an armful of wet washing, sun in my eyes, and pin it up. I go back inside, make a cup of tea, settle back into whatever I was doing and within five minutes, rain. I don’t mean a light little sprinkle that you can ignore. I mean rain. ARGH. A mad dash outside to pull it in as I sigh to myself about once again being tricked by whomever is in charge of such things.

Anyway…

I finished something. A tea cosy. I know, awesome. Last week I decided I MUST HAVE A TEA COSY because, as my friend Don pointed out, I’ve turned 80. I started knitting one right then and there - ignoring the fact that I was nearly done with my Saucy socks. I even had a false couple of starts with the tea cosy. First I was going to use Twilley’s Freedom Spirit, but quickly realised it wouldn’t be a quick knit because the yarn isn’t heavy (and I didn’t have a second ball in the same colour to double it up) and I was going about it the wrong way (making a long, narrow band vs a short, wide one). I grabbed the other Twilley’s I have, Freedom wool, and cast on. A few rows into it I realised that despite changing my technique to short and wide, I didn’t adjust my stitch counts. Oops. Good thing chunky yarn knits up quickly, eh?

So it actually took me the whole night of knitting (including making dinner, doing dishes) to do the damn thing. I made it up on the fly. I hadn’t actually ever felted Twilley’s before, but I knew it would easily felt and figured I’d lose about a third of the size so after a few rows, I began increasing every other row to get the largest circumference and then decreasing the same. Because my tea pot is rather small, I knew it would be too fiddley to try to have a buttonable flap like some of the examples I found. My solution was to seam up 1.5-2″ on either side, felt and see how it fits. Well, it shrunk more than I expected so I had to cut one of the seams completely (no big woop) and stretch it all out so it would easily slip on and off the tea pot. I ended up having to put it on upside down from how I wanted, but it’s fine - the multi-coloured stripe doesn’t look as heavy as it did prior to being felted (I’d wanted it to be at the bottom because of how heavy it looked).

Don’t ask me about dimensions before and after because I was so anxious to felt that I completely forgot to measure.

Does it work? I don’t know, I haven’t had any tea yet. Well I haven’t had need to make an entire pot of tea.

And my Saucy socks. They came really close to being done on Saturday and then I tried them on and either my toes have gone anorexic without talking to me about it or something went wrong with my gauge. Poop. The toe was so baggy I ripped it out. It’s still a bit baggier than I would like, but I realised that on the whole second sock my gauge went funny. I don’t know if this is down to using different needles (the first was knit with Brittany Birch 2.5mm and the second with Lantern Moon Sox Stix 2.5mm) which are ever so slightly different in size (seriously like 2 atoms different - I have super SEM vision, I can see things like atoms) or I just decided to knit loosely. In many ways it’s okay because the first sock is a bit tight (it leaves indentations when I wear it - yes I have sat around in one sock, don’t lie and say you haven’t) and the second one isn’t so terribly loose that it can’t be worn.

God I am so sorry I can never shut up. I really am not so verbose in person.

I’ll add full details re: the tea cosy to my finished objects a bit later.

Another picture heavy post, I’m afraid.

Saturday when I was in Woodstock with my friend, there was a little Craft Fair going on. We went in (and I, having been to other craft fairs here, didn’t expect much) and I was surprised at one seller (there were only about 10) who was selling handmade handbags! They were all really cute in nice fabrics AND REVERSIBLE. So it’s like getting two handbags in one unless of course you manage to leave a half eaten chocolate bar in the bottom of your bag. I bought mine from the actual designer (Fleur Anna) who informed me that a shop in Oxford sells them for more than TWO TIMES what she sells them for! Although, the prices on her web site are also quite a bit more than what I paid!

And while walking back and forth along the street looking for this yarn shop that went out of business two- to three years ago (you should’ve seen the look on the faces of the ladies in the information centre when I asked them about it), we spotted this shop with some very pretty Asian-themed handbags and clothes. It was all fair trade silk and the variety was amazing. I spied this very pretty water bottle holder (or small beer or wine bottle ;)) and bought it as I thought it would work perfectly for holding a ball of yarn and needles (and pattern) for socks.

See, quite often I get on a train and have to stand part of the journey and this has a long strap so it enables me to put down my heavy bag and just keep this out and keep knitting! It also keeps everything from getting tangled up with the other contents of my bag (I generally carry my knitting in ziploc bags with one corner cut off to feed the yarn through). I don’t know if I’m the first to do this or not, but I thought it was really clever of me hahaha. The lady I bought it from was like “You’re going to put knitting… in this? It’s made for a bottle. A little bottle. What are you knitting?”

How the holder was intended — How I’ve decided to use it

Well, if you own the Vogue Stitchionary: volume one - knit & purl and were a bit annoyed that a list of patterns wasn’t included, well you’re now in luck - the nerd that I am has created both an alphabetical list of all 265 stitch patterns, but also lists by the four chapters in the book. I was going to really go nerdy on you and do a proper index - you know, with categories like Flowers or Geometric shapes. I may still do this. Yes, I am a nerd. A library nerd. Anyway, download the index if you desire (it’s in PDF). I hope the editors don’t come after me. Or maybe they’ll hire me to do proper indexes for future printings and books.

Now for a strange question. I’ve looked at a lot of sock patterns lately and wondered about pattern instructions that I find confusing.

Many of these patterns (top down) have a repeating pattern around the leg. When the pattern gets to the heel, many of them suggest you do one of the following when it comes time to do the heel flap (for simplicity I will use 64 stitches across 4 needles):

A. Complete the last round of the pattern as usual then knit across 16 stitches on needle 1. Turn and purl back and continue onto needle 4 and purl 16 stitches so you have 32 stitches on one needle.

OR

B. Break the yarn once you’ve completed the last pattern round and reorganise your stitches so that you have the same 32 mentioned above on a single needle.

Now I am sure sometimes these options are the right options. For example, and I’m just guessing here since I haven’t knit patterns that do any of the following, if the pattern is to continue down the heel flap or the repeat would be offset otherwise. When I knit a sock, I finish that last pattern round and then start the heel flap by knitting the stitches off of needles 1 & 2 since it doesn’t matter if it’s needles 1 & 4 or 1 & 2 since the pattern repeats around the leg. Am I missing something by not doing A or B above? I honestly feel like I must be missing something to make it that tiny bit more complicated.

Oh well.

I think I might look at a new theme for my blog. And trying to figure out the code to clean up the archives ’cause that’s just making my head feel a little crazy looking at all those months. Or I might work on my Ms Marigold.